The researchers observed a correlation for workload measures of midnight census and daily discharges with lower teaching evaluation scores (both beta=–0.026; P<.0001). There was a correlation for the number of daily admissions with higher teaching scores (beta=0.021; P=.001) and with increased patient safety indicators (odds ratio=1.81; P=.0001).

“Several measures of attending physician workload were associated with slightly lower teaching effectiveness, and patient safety may be compromised when teams are managing new admissions,” the researchers wrote. “Ongoing efforts by residency programs to optimize the learning environment should include strategies to manage the workload of supervising attendings.”